Friday, 31 January 2014

Ned Steinberger's later guitars and basses whilst still being full of innovation never quite had the same impact as his now legendary minimalist headless L-series bass guitars, originally produced in 1979 in Brooklyn, New York. Here is one of his later 1980s' bass designs for Gibson, a model that has sunk almost without trace into obscurity. I remember a more youthful version of me seeing some of these instruments at a Music Show in Kensington, London, back in the day and am ashamed to say that I said rather loudly something along the lines of, "Oh look, Steinberger have invented the headstock!" I also remember all too well the dirty look I received from the guy on the booth. He'd probably heard the same thing 100 times already that day.

Currently being auctioned on eBay, with bidding at $510 at the time of writing. (Item located in Waterloo, Illinois).

Thursday, 30 January 2014

This pointy pointy guitar looking somewhat like a mutated B.C.Rich Mockingbird is a one-off creation (sorry, I don't know who made it) and is currently being offered for sale on eBay UK, although the seller isn't willing to post - the guitar must be picked up from Stamford, Lincolnshire, UK. The guitar looks to be very competently built judging by the photos (obviously you'd need to get your hands on it to pass better judgement) and features and oak body, walnut neck, with an African ebony fretboard, 24 frets, and a metallic graphite finish.

This is a guitar that screams loud and clear that it is intended for a specific type of music. It's not one you'd expect a country picker to play, although I'd love to see that.

Wednesday, 29 January 2014

Here's another bizarre vintage guitar that Bertram spotted on eBay, this time located in Canada. I'll let the eBay seller tell you about it:

Made in Italy in the mid 1960s by Zero Sette Accordian. Julio Giulietti (JG) was the owner of the company at the time.
Hollowbody with awesome paisley fabric (not paper) finish under clear lacquer finish. Bolt-on neck with bound rosewood fretboard, two single-coil pickups. We sourced and installed a 1960s Goya replacement neck pickup to replace the modern one that was on it when we acquired it.
A super rare guitar! We believe they called it the 1092P model and have only seen one other one sold over the years and it was in Europe.
HistoryMany Euro accordion manufacturers were branching out into the exploding electric guitar market in the early 1960s and it was a period of creative, complicated and distinct (some might say ugly) hollow-body designs coming from companies such as Eko, Polverini, Galanti and Zero Sette. Some were rebadged and sold as part of the Goya catalogue, while others such as the JG models, were marketed under their own trade names.
When Kustom bought Goya in 1970 most production moved to Japan.
This guitar is the sister model to the Goya Rangemaster Paisley hollow-body that is played by Jimi Hendrix backstage in a black and white photo that has been circulating for years.
The body is amazingly resonant (especially since Grandma's couch is wrapped around it!) and it is in great condition. It plays very well... the staff love playing it. It is not just a collectible, show piece guitar – it is a player.

Please excuse me for borrowing so extensively from the eBay listing, but it tells a lot more about the guitar than I could.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of US$2,195 (and with free shipping offered to USA, Canada and Europe).

Tuesday, 28 January 2014

Bertram has alerted my attention to this peculiar vintage guitar on eBay.de (with the item actually being located in The Netherlands), the only distinguishing name on it being "AZOR" on the pickups. Here's what the eBay seller has to say about it:

50s/60s Electric hollow body guitar with original case
This must have been a very spectacular and futuristic guitar in its time!
It has a very unique combination of features:
First of all it's completely hollow. That makes it very light and very nice to play (even unplugged!).
It has asymmetrical body shape, reminiscent of a Fender Jazzmaster.
It has 2 single coil pickups. The neck pickup gives a very warm and vintage jazzy sound. The combination of the two pickups make it sound twangy, like a surf guitar. It has a 3-way selector. Two volume and two tone knobs.
The bridge is a solid ebony movable bridge, the type you mostly see on acoustic gypsy jazz guitars
It has a black plastic fingerboard(!!!!!!!) with large fret markers and white binding and zero-fret (again mostly found on vintage gypsy jazz guitars).
The finish is a amazing metallic brown sunburst. The scale is 65 cm.
It only has a few repaired cracks at the bottom (see last picture) but it's all solid and stable.
The guitar was sold by 'Casa Garrido' in Madrid. There's a label in the case and a stick on the headstock.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any info on the guitar nor the 'AZOR' brand. But in my opinion this is a very unique instrument in a great condition.

Does anyone out there seen anything similiar or have any more information on this guitar? Personally I wouldn't have likened it to a Fender Jazzmaster, other than to say it has an offset waist. If anything the design is more proto-Ovation Breadwinner LTD.

Monday, 27 January 2014

If - as the eBay seller claims - this Schecter Jimi Hendrix Strat was made in the 1980s, then it predates Fender's Voodoo Strat by at least a decade what with its upside-down headstock and reverse angled bridge pickup (to make it sound that bit more Hendrix-y!). It's a really cool looking Strat finished all in black. I guess the use of the "Jimi Hendrix" name on the scratchplate was unauthorised. The seller says that these guitars were only in production for something like six months because of the legal issues surrounding the use of the Hendrix name.

Sunday, 26 January 2014

Here's a custom-made electric guitar that, according to the eBay listing, is a Bo Diddley influenced design. Which is all very commendable; it appears to be a very nicely made instrument.

But... I do find the design of rear of the instrument rather perplexing with its externally-mounted tone chamber and electronics cavity plus the reinforcing blocks of timber in the centre of the back. For myself I'd have preferred these to have been integral to the body, but maybe the construction method dictated the design.

Friday, 24 January 2014

Back to guitars again now after our double bass detour of the last few days...

Here's an old Gibson for you... it's a 1931 Gibson L-0 in gorgeous condition.

The neck joins the body at the 12th fret as was popular at the time, and I guess some might call this a "parlour guitar" although I always believed that parlour guitars had a much narrower body shape whereas this Gibson has some quite exaggerated curves.

Thursday, 23 January 2014

Hello Gavin,
I'm enjoying the EUB detour and thought you might like this, my circa 1962 Ampeg Baby Bass, the forerunner of a lot of today's EUBs. Looks kinda like wood? It's not. It's UVEX, a type of plastic that continually (to this day) outgasses a strong (and not pleasant) odor, which has absolutely permeated its wool gig bag to the point that the bag cannot be kept indoors. Check out the fancy bridge which is also serves as the pickup; here's a short description of the pickup from Steve Azola (maker of Azola EUBs):

"It's sort of a primitive yet complicated little system based on technology available when Jess Oliver devised it. He used parts and materials that were readily available at that time, which included discs and coils used in telephones of that era. The original Ampeg Baby Bass pickup concept was that the flexible diaphragm discs beneath the bridge feet are meant to mimic the vibrating top of an acoustic bass. There are magnetic coils beneath the discs which capture the vibratory action of the strings/bridge/diaphragms. Not what you would normally expect at all from anything called a "magnetic pickup" (like a P bass or Jazz bass type)"
(from http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f101/baby-bass-megathread-26190/index16.html).

Tuesday, 21 January 2014

Please excuse me showing another double bass, but I couldn resist showing this bass (with what looks like a sawn-off body) just for the sheer inventiveness factor. The neck, strings, bridge and tailpiece are detachable whilst the body has a hinged lid and serves as carry case for all the other components. The inside of the body / carry case even has a pink fluffy lining so as to protect the neck, etc, whilst in transit. Apparently it's a UK-made bass from a company called Bassix, although this example currently listed on eBay UK with a starting bid of £200 is being sold as a project because it is in need of a little attention.

Monday, 20 January 2014

Technically as an upright bass this Yamaha SB-1 electric upright bass (EUB) falls outside the remit of this guitar blog, but I do like to feature other stringed instruments on these pages from time to time, and to be perfectly honest, my main reason in featuring this bass is that I really liked the composition of the photograph reproduced here from the eBay listing.

The bass looks huge to those of us used to horizontally-played stringed instruments, but in fact it is only 3/4 scale. I love the skeletal frame which gives the instrument the look of something that might be portrayed in an impressionist painting.

Sunday, 19 January 2014

From Germany, here is a vintage Musima Elektrina III guitar, a model which appeared in their 1961 catalogue. It features three Rellog Gitona pickups and a Bigsby style vibrato which is probably not original to the guitar. The square buttons on the tuners have quite an Art Deco look to them - if only the colour scheme of the guitar was something cleaner, like black and white, it would help enhance the theme. However, there's something about the design of this model that I find very reminiscent of Australia's Maton guitars. Is it just me or does anyone else see this?

Saturday, 18 January 2014

The headstock logo kinda makes you do a double take, doesn't it? Walking a very fine line between copy guitars and outright forgery, this Gitison "The Paul" copy is a Hungarian made guitar, the work of one Mr. Tibor Turcsak (see another one of his guitars here).

This particular example of his work has a Honduras mahogany body, a flamed maple neck, and German-made Shadow humbuckers.

Thursday, 16 January 2014

The brainchild of Canadians Gaetano Frangella and Noah Vachon, the Swinger is an electric guitar cunningly disguised to look like a tennis racket. It's no "cigar box guitar" job either, these guitars are quality instruments and are handcrafted from scratch. The guitar's electrics are mounted on an transparent acrylic insert printed with the racket's strings and which completes the illusion exceedingly well (as does the headless design and the body-mounted Steinberger gearless tuners).

The neck is semi-fretless featuring only the first seven frets, so wouldn't be a lot of use for those of you who make extensive use of barre chords up and down the neck, but would be great for those willing to experiment with fretless stylings further up the neck.

The world’s first guitar of its kind, the Swinger puts the soul of an electric guitar into a body inspired by vintage tennis rackets. It looks as light as a tennis racket yet has the solid weight and authority of a rich-sounding electric guitar.
The Swinger invites you to take a new look at how you play music. Since we were kids we’ve been pretending our tennis rackets were guitars. Now the illusion has become reality.
Handcrafted using select high-end materials and specialty fittings, the Swinger features a semi-fretless neck that invites exploration and musical freedom. Enjoy it as much for the beauty of its form as for its great sound.
The Swinger’s shape, balance, and detailing are a blend of art and craft, while the instrument’s sound qualities are a solid fusion of fine-instrument building and musicianship. It’s an entirely unique instrument, built to give you a lifetime of beauty, play, and creativity.

Wednesday, 15 January 2014

Here's a Mensfield Iron Cross guitar, which the seller tells us was luthier made in the USA, and is one of only "several" made. Although it looks metallic (or perhaps silver sprayed plastic) in places, the guitar actually features a maple body. It is also equipped with Schaller locking tuners, a Washburn trem, and Seymour Duncan SH1N and TB11 pickups (neck and bridge respectively).

Currently being auctioned on eBay UK with a starting price of £666 (Ooh-err! How devilish!).

Monday, 13 January 2014

Fender have got some pretty cool guitars in their Pawn Shop series, including variants on the Jaguar, the Mustang, the Bass VI, and design hybrids such as the Offset, the '51 and the '72.

However this particular Fender, currently being auctioned on eBay, may on first glance resemble the Pawn Shop '72 Thinline (which seems to have been discontinued in favour of the similar looking solidbody Pawn Shop '70s Stratocaster Deluxe), but look again and you'll see that it has a number of differences in its design.

It's a Thinline with f-hole, slab top and binding. It has a Telecaster "Ash Tray" bridge loaded with a Seymour Duncan Lil' 59 single-coil sized humbucker, and a big fat Fender Fullrange humbucker in the neck position. It also has a Tele neck - in this instance it's a quarter sawn maple neck showing an attractive flame and is topped off by a rosewood fingerboard.

Created by the Fender Custom Shop, this is allegedly a prototype for the Pawn Shop series. The evidence for this is evidenced by the Fender Research & Development logo on the reverse of the headstock.

Currently listed on eBay with a starting big of $1,000. (Auction ends tonight).

Sunday, 12 January 2014

Hi Gavin
You've featured my Andreas Shark and Dagrite guitars before. How about something from New York now?
How about featuring a Carl Thompson - not his more well known basses, but a guitar with a little Lou Reed connection too. This would be a god time as Carl will not be taking any more custom orders after 5th Feb 2014
There's alot of CT youtube videos out there, such as these from 2011:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz1JWfRDD8Yhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tMEwmWHw3YMine has the dots (where the larger wood bridge/tailpiece would have attached before Carl switched to the more simple wood bridge - one of the things he talks about at start of second video). Mine is one from an earlier 2007 batch of four made for Lou Reed. After he had selected two there were two left - of which this is one.
So, what is it like? Very, very light in weight and highly resonant when unplugged! ...and it's not for sale!
Cheers,
Rhodri K

Thanks Rhodri. Of course we have seen a Carl Thompson guitar on this blog before, in the piece about Lou Reed's sad passing. In the comments below the blog post there was some discussion about the guitar Lou is pictured with. I watched a few of Thompson's YouTube videos at the time. He comes over as a bumbling, eccentric, but very knowledgebale man.

Friday, 10 January 2014

The now discontinued Gibson Les Paul Vixen was introduced in 2006 and was marketed as "A real guitar for women".

It was basically a stripped down Les Paul with a lightweight mahogany body, narrow string spacing with slim-taper neck, 490R and 498T humbuckers, and was available in Caribbean Blue, Corona Yellow, Coral, Ebony, and Red Metallic finishes. And yes, "Coral" is just another name for "pink".

It followed in the footsteps of other "girl guitars" with brands like Daisy Rock, Halo Guitars, and even Fender getting in on the action, although is it my imagination or are Fender's "Hello Kitty" Stratocasters most popular with punk acts trying to be ironic?

Some thought that the simplified control layout (just one volume and one tone) on the Vixen was somewhat insulting to women in that they weren't being given the same tonal options as on a regular Les Paul. Personally, I thought it was simply a more sensible arrangement. I never could get on with those separate volumes and tones for each pickup.

The Corona Yellow example pictured here is currently listed on eBay in Italy with a starting bid of €510.

Thursday, 9 January 2014

Here's another Japanese-made guitar, this time from the 1970s and it's of genuine through-neck construction rather than being a "faux though neck" like the Morris guitar we looked at earlier this week. It's a D'Agostino, a brand about which I unfortunately know very little (and neither does the eBay seller of this guitar). However, the DiMarzio (or DiMarzio design) pickups, the control knobs, and the brass nut, brass truss rod cover and the very particular brass fingerboard inlays are all highly reminiscent of those on the Kay K45 travel guitar (marketed in the USA as the Austin Hatchet); surely it's some relation?

Tuesday, 7 January 2014

Of course Japanese guitar builders really hit their stride in the 1980s... Here's a Morris Global Sound guitar being offered for sale for €400 on a French website. It features the faux thru-neck body finish popular on Japanese guitars of this era, plus the usual DiMarzio humbuckers and hardware. Morris guitars have been built in Nagano, Japan, since 1967. The company was named after the nickname for company founder Mr Toshio Moridaira, and today concentrate on producing fine acoustic guitars for fingerstyle players.

Sunday, 5 January 2014

Isn't it bizarre that many of us can look at an old "junkshop" guitar like this 1960s Japanese-made Zen-on and feel not only nostalgic but also a sense of longing, when really in our hearts we know that these guitars feel awkward to play, are impossible to set up and keep in tune, and generally play like a dog? It's even more remarkable that there are people selling these for quite respectable sums of money, and that other people are parting with good wadges of cash for them.

I hear a lot of younger people complaining about entry-level, budget guitars and even some mid-price instruments as being "pieces of shit" but these guys just don't know they are born. They never had to put up with terrible planks like this Zen-on. There are so many very playable good quality cheap guitars being offered today that we would've given our right arms for when I was a kid.

But despite all that, I still LIKE the Zen-on. I can't really think why. (Let's face it, that bridge is never going to intonate properly). Maybe it could re-create that garage band sound.

Isn't it typical that both these guitars are now out of action? The Kent needs a bit more setting up as the action (no doubt increased by the additional tension) is making it a chore to play but also there's a fault in the wiring of the Hofner pickup I added. It shouldn't be too much of a job to sort out but it's not a guitar I play very much and so it's a job that's been consigned to the backburner.

Of more concern is my hitherto trusty Hurricane which has seen me well through many guitar club meetings, practice sessions, the odd open mic night and occasional performances. Not only has the bridge started lifting but it has developed an annoying buzz on the low E string. A closer inspection shows the neck is starting to do an impression of a banana. These are things that can be fixed, but I figured, this guitar cost me £20 (plus £10 shipping) a couple of years ago and I've had loads of playing time out of it; it's time to retire it and take the plunge and get a new guitar.

After a lot of research - because I am on a limited budget - I have now ordered a new acoustic guitar which I have high hopes for and should be receiving some time next week. I'll post about it again once I've had the chance to have a play and make some kind of evaluation.

Friday, 3 January 2014

Regular readers will know already that the Burns Flyte is one of my favourite guitar designs. Here's a UK-made prototype for a reissue from 1999, and doesn't it look fantastic? I wonder if the the neck is just a generic Burns scroll neck; I would have thought they'd have reverted to the original spear-shaped Flyte headstock had this model gone into production. Note also the Wilkinson trem, Burns Ultrasonic humbuckers (made by Bill Lawrence), and the Tele-like control panel - all something of a departure for the Flyte. However, the whole guitar is still a whole lot nicer than the eventual Far Eastern-made Flyte reissue which featured an unnecesary cutaway on the body and a more Brian May-like headstock shape.

Thursday, 2 January 2014

Here's another Sustainer-equipped Made in Japan guitar from Fernandes, this time it's a Fernandes Ravelle Custom Dave Kushner (Velvet Revolver) signature model from 2007 and is not to be confused with similar models from China and Korea. I like how the classic Les Paul design has been taken and given a Science Fiction / Industrial twist. Note how the volume and tone controls align with the holes cut out in the pick guard. The metallic green also particularly sets off the futuristic stylings.